Blog posts tagged with Collaboration

"WARNING: Avoid collaboration if possible!" That’s the bright orange warning in the opening pages of a new handbook by Fund for Our Economic Future that aims to help you recognize -- and achieve -- real "col-lab-or-a-tion" and avoid "co-blab-or-a-tion".

Christie George, director of New Media Ventures, a mission-driven venture firm and donor collaborative supporting progressive startups, discusses her organization's new Innovation Fund. The Fund has two goals: 1) increase the number of investable projects for which they receive proposals; and 2) break through the bias for “the usual suspects” to fund more diverse entrepreneurs.

Mandy Ellerton and Molly Matheson Gruen of the Archibald Bush Foundation think philanthropy needs transparent and thoughtful ways to get buy-in and gain perspective to make new ideas reality. Truly good ideas, they argue, are created in partnership between organizations, leaders, and the people most affected by the problem at hand.

Why aren’t more nonprofits, like Khan Academies and Wikipedia, building software to create social change at scale? Shannon Farley, co-founder Fast Forward looks at how foundations can become accelerators for tech nonprofits.

Countless ideas are abandoned because entrepreneurs could not find the proper funding or mentorship to build their idea from a mere thought to a reality. June Sugiyama, director of Vodafone Americas Foundation, reports that this is where the philanthropic sector is well positioned to take risks, and can help fill the gap by providing grants to new social impact ideas and start-ups.

Here are five essentials to making collaboration work, based on the actual experiences of social sector leaders, who graciously shared their insights at a May 19 meetup and happy hour devoted to partnerships at Foundation Center West.

Before successful partnerships can be established, an organization must first "Know Thyself." We have rounded up some articles that will help you know your organization better, find examples, and communicate your successful partnerships well.